Cellular telephones (cell phones) typically have a built-in clock. A cell phone clock can be a hardware component or a software component. Typically, the cell phone clock maintains the current time as the “device time.” One of the primary functions of a cell phone clock is to provide the current time to a cell phone user. As cell phones have become more sophisticated and more versatile, cell phone users have come to rely on their cell phones to provide an array of functions, such as access to email, short text message transmission, and Internet browsing. Similarly, users have become accustomed to relying on their cell phones for access to the correct time. Unfortunately, a cell phone's clock can provide the incorrect time for various reasons.
When a cell phone is first used, the clock is not usually correctly set and the user must normally correctly set the clock at least one time. However, like the users of the ubiquitously flashing VCR clock, many cell phone users do not make the effort to correctly set a cell phone clock. A cell phone clock also can provide the incorrect time when the cell phone's battery is allowed to completely discharge or when the battery is disconnected from the cell phone, thereby permitting the clock to lose the ability to store a correct time. Yet another way that a cell phone clock can provide the incorrect time is when a user simply sets the clock with the wrong time.
Regardless of the method by which the clock becomes incorrectly set, a cell phone user will typically desire that the clock is correctly set, so that the user can rely on the cell phone clock for the correct time. One approach to setting a cell phone clock is to send a time set command as a portion of a control message transmitted from a cellular base station to a cell phone. Some cellular telephone networks have a network feature that transmits a current time to cellular telephones on the network. However, there are many cellular networks that do not provide a specific signal, control message, and/or mechanism for providing a time-set function (e.g., GSM networks and TDMA networks). In such networks, there is a need for an automated feature for providing the current time to a cellular telephone. Therefore, there is a need in the art to enable a cell phone clock to be set automatically, without relying on a specialized command message from the cellular telephone system.